Forum Topic

Center for London is a bit out of touch

The Centre for London think tank wants us to stop converting shops into homes, why? Two many empty shops, not enough homes, SIMPLE. Why deny people decent home on the ground floor?

Ben Stallwitz ● 1054d6 Comments

Mr Havelock, you raise a good questions as to where this malice has come from. In South Ealing the answer is simple: 'The Balkans' is the answer. From Serbian-business owners, to Serbian cafe managers, and then there are the customers from those regions. While most of The Balkans is in the E.U., Serbia is not, so criminal records on people from Serbia are hard to get. Dodgy businesses and dodgy customers from a part of the world that is low in terms of law and crime enforcement and high in crime, is it a surprise that are pavements are being crushed by cars and the area littered and destroyed by late-night street drinkers and bottle smashers.The Costa Coffee is filled during the day by the unemployable from The Balkans.Balkanisation, its Balkanisation!

Waldemar Baran ● 1025d

The Shopping parade in South Ealing has always been leasehold shops and flats. The problem has been the selling on of the freeholds and less than diligent freeholders and property management.That happened because the local authority cannot police rents nor oversee presentation of aesthetic appearance. They can only enforce  public health and basic safety or trading standards.They could do a lot more but it conflicts with the cosy relationships with developers and their cohorts that has gone on so long it is now embedded in all aspects.The result is the run down and neglect of a district. But quite where this  rather sinister element of people are being drawn to here is rather baffling.

Raymond Havelock ● 1049d

Many chickens would be saved if the shops in South Ealing became homes

Waldemar Baran ● 1050d

A lot of people don't want to live in towers so it is a shame that that seems to be the way that building is going in London - not helped by the Govt requiring such a high density of housing.I'm sure that it was easier to take more care of the terraces when the owners owned the shops and lived upstairs.  They would have found it easier to deal with any waste which is now a constant problem.  So many of the pictures of old shops showed shopkeepers sweeping the area in front of their shops.  You see that very rarely nowadays.

Philippa Bond ● 1051d

It can work if done correctly and with care.Most shop conversions are so poorly done they simply add to the run down and declining quality of the local environs.It's usually cheap nasty greedy landlord jobs and looks tatty. Even if the flat inside is OK.Very strict regulations on design and appearance of conversions from safety to external appearance would go a long way to appease that. As would a stricter set of rules on shops frontages. One only has to look at old photographs to see how neat, smart and proud shop parades were and how inviting the whole ambience created was. If it could be done then, it most certainly out to be able to be done now.Those few shops that remain like that still stand out but generally dirty and scruffy places and poor aesthetics rule.It's likely that retail has had it's day as overheads alone make most small shops and businesses unviable.Cafes are at saturation point and some businesses seem to draw an undesirable element which further diminishes the attraction of the High Street.A sad example of this is South Ealing Road.  Once a parade of great little shops and businesses, Tidy, Smart and well used.But now it seems to be frequented by sinister looking groups, Blacked out vehicles cruising around and heavily covered up e-scooter and moped riders.  And in broad daylight. Even if nothing untoward is occurring, it looks sinister and creates an uncomfortable atmosphere.It's not a nice place to walk down anymore and the few remaining good shops must be wondering like everyone else as to where all this has come from and why ?Then you get stabbings in Northfields avenue. Robberies in Parks, All in broad daylight.Problem is the basic elements of malevolence are being allowed and are going unchallenged.Bell and Co's and successive Govt intransigence to such problems fuelled by adopting overdensification without proper homes with proper living space is simply recreating the problems inner city districts have endured for generations.

Raymond Havelock ● 1052d

Works virtually everywhere else on the continent, why not here?

N V Brooks ● 1053d